The invention relates to a sun roof for vehicles, with a first and second frame forming a cover frame, and a cover which can be opened and closed, in which the cover frame can be fastened to a vehicle body by clamping the roof covering, in the zone of the edge of an opening, between the first and second frames, and in which a clamping mechanism, arranged distributed on the circumference of the cover frame, makes possible the maintaining of the necessary clamping forces between the first and second frames.
Such sun roofs are known from German Patent 3,241,652, according to which has been proposed, already, a clamp or snap connection for the first and second frames, as one possibility of connection. Such a catch clamp connection is known also from German Disclosure 3,545,973. In this case, either a stay provided with catch connections engages in a slot of the opposite frame, having corresponding catch elements, in order to produce the catch connection, or a special clamping profile surrounding the cover frame is used, which is spread in between one frame and its opposite frame, and thus holds the two partial frames of the cover frame into their final position, clamped into the roof covering; or one clamps a first partial frame, C-shaped in cross section, to a second partial frame which, in turn, is glued, welded, screwed, or caught to a third partial frame. In this known sun roof covering, a screw connection of the first and second partial frames is unnecessary because of the clamping connection; but it is also difficult, during installation, to apply the clamping force necessary for the permanent solid, sealed fastening of the cover frame to the roof covering, because the first and the second frames would have to be so strongly pressed by the fingers of one hand into the installed position, as the relatively high clamping force against the roof covering requires, while with the other hand, the clamping profile must be pressed into a relatively narrow groove until it catches. In practice, it has been found that the use of a special tool, to be able to apply the necessary forces, is inconvenient; this is not practical.
The surrounding clamping profile can be eliminated, it is true, if the first and second frames can be directly caught together, so that the fingers of both of the installer's hands are available for applying the necessary clamping force, but in this way the clamping force applied in spots is only slightly greater, and there is the drawback that with any necessary demounting of the cover frame, the catch connection is destroyed and the cover frame cannot be used again.